Wildwood - Day 1

Pimp V: Legacy went 4-0, though technically our second round opponents didn't exist. Instead, we played half of Slutgers, another Rutgers and friends team that happened to be playing one field over anyway. No recollection of the scores, but it was a good day.

Machine Alumni Game

Slept in a bit after partying it up in New Brunswick with some of the currents and formers, had a delicious breakfast sandwich and hit Buccleuch Park around 12:30pm for a rousing game of flatball. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, though a bit breezy, and the currents were tough to stop when they ran through their stud players. The alumni, meanwhile, were goofing off and nursing hangovers, passing a bottle of SoCo around in the halftime huddle, that sort of thing. It was fun to get out there and see everybody, and a good reminder that I need to find some quality pickup or league to prep for pro tryouts this winter.

PRs and Pickup

Bench press: 5 at 135, 145, 145, 145, 135lb

Snatch: 5 at 40kg

Clean and jerk: 4 at 60, 70kg; 2 at 74, 77, 79kg (PR)
2 cleans at 80kg

90min pickup

I couldn't press out either of my two jerk attempts at 80kg, and I couldn't get under the cleans at 82kg. I came close once but the bar was too far forward and I lost abdominal pressure. I think it would be worthwhile to start practicing squat cleans, and to actually rep the jerk as a separate movement. But I'm pretty happy with the PR.

Rutgers Practice

I played swing handler while the kids practiced the trap transition with a 4-man cup, then I was with the young athletes in a scrimmage against the more veteran players. Finished up with 6x40m sprints with recovery.

Run, Practice

1mi in 7:05
Full recovery
1mi in 6:20

Practice was all scrimmage.

Rutgers Practice

Another Thursday. Practiced my lefty backhands with Dave (old teammate/current women's coach) while waiting for the boys to show up. Did the full warmup and then got some reps in with the handlers, giving tips here and there. When we did the Thunderdome-style defense drill, I caught all my O's but couldn't get that D. Well, one time I got in there but the cutter caught it off the mack. Otherwise I couldn't pull the trigger.

But next was a deep cutting drill, so I matched up with Eric for all my jump balls. I figured it would be a good matchup, given that he's going into Regionals next weekend while I haven't had a tournament since Wilwdwood. I caught all my O's again, but this time was able to get a couple blocks. I did have a height advantage, but I'll chalk it up as a decent refresher on positioning for me.

After maybe 10 reps of that I started to get a funny feeling in the back of my knee, but I wasn't going to back down from the final sprints. We did 10 jump-sprints for 40ish yards each, and by the end of that I was definitely feeling some tightness in the hamstring tendons. I felt like I gave a solid effort each time, but I don't feel good about my acceleration. Just haven't been repping it.

Rutgers Practice

Got down to New Brunswick to check out Machine tryouts, showed up early and did some throwing on the sidelines while the girls practiced. Warmed up with the boys, popped in and out of the scrimmages, had a nice time. We usually had 3 returners on the line with 4 new players, so it was mostly about giving tips to the new guys and shooting the shit with all the alums that were there.

We finished up with 3 rounds of:
40m sprint
10 pushups
40m sprint
20 crunches
40m sprint
5 squat jumps

Nucci Cup 2011

13-10 over Lehigh

9-13 to DCizzle

13-8 over Fog of War

9-6 over Pitt B

I can almost taste Gunswick 2012. Some impressive play from the incoming freshmen, and it was great to see some of the Machine alums come out. My cleats blew out, which makes it easier to decide which pair to bring to Germany. Overall, a really enjoyable day with friends and new faces.

Sunday was completely rained out, but we didn't really want to play in the torrential downpour anyway.

Long Day

After a solid few days of rest, headed back to BID for a night with friends and then went with them down to the Mercer fields for a scrimmage against the DEVYL open YCC team. With only two subs, the first two games to 7 were a little rough for me and the other "club" players (mostly Machiners), but we handled business and squeaked out wins against the top U-19 players in the area. For the third game to 7, we combined with the U-16 team and played 4/3 lines, giving everybody some good experience (but the U-19ers won that scrim).

After a WaWa lunch break and some re-warmup, Blueprint held practice with 14 players plus me. I helped run a handler drill and then we played a series of games to 3, which were also pretty tough. Hot, humid, one sub for both teams, it ended up being a long day for the few of us that were there for both the DEVYL scrim and BP practice. We finished up with a couple sprints and then Albert, James and I went back to Frenchy's house. We hopped in his pool for a much-needed cooldown before nomming on delicious home-grilled burgers and side dishes courtesy of the French family. Overall a very tiring, but also fulfilling day.

Regionals

(8-4) 15-4 over SUNY-Brockport (16, 15)

(8-7) 15-13 over Princeton (

(2-8) 4-15 vs Cornell

Win by forfeit over SUNY-Albany

(5-8) 11-14 vs UConn

Win by forfeit over Yale

1. Cornell*
2. NYU
T-3. Columbia
T-3. Connecticut
T-5. Wesleyan
T-5. Rutgers
T-7. SUNY-Buffalo
T-7. Yale
9. Cornell-B
10. Syracuse
11. Princeton
12. Queens-Kingston
13. TCNJ
14. RIT
15. SUNY-Brockport
DNF - SUNY-Albany

Pre-Lift, Practice

5 overhead squat 20kg

4 squat clean and jerk 40kg

3 rounds:

(4 squat clean and jerk 50kg

3 3-step jumps per leg)

5 single-leg max jumps per leg

Practice: flying 30s

Lift, Practice

Muscle-ups: 3, 3, 5

3 rounds:

(3 deadlift at 90kg

6 standing max jumps)

2 rounds:

(3 power cleans 60kg

6 box jumps)

15 hanging leg raises

Practice.

Recover, Lift, Practice

Workout 1: Recovery

0.35mi warmup in ~3:00

1.25mi in 8:15

5mi biking in 14:30 (level 8)

15 minutes stretching

Workout 2: Maintenance Lift

5 deadlift 40kg, 5 hang clean 40kg

4 squat clean and split jerk 50kg

4 squat clean and split jerk 60kg

2 clean and split jerk 70kg

5 deadlift 80kg

5 deadlift 90kg

2x(3 deadlift to 2 clean and jerk) at 60kg

Power clean to 3 front squats to jerk 60kg

3x8 incline bench press 95lb

3x25 incline situp

2x10 pushups at +45lb

Practice:

2x(50-50yd, 15 burpees throw for 60 seconds)

3x(40-40yd, 10 dive bombers, throw for 60 seconds)

5x(30-30yd, 10 burpees, throw for 60 seconds)

7x(20-20yd, 10 pushups, throw for 60 seconds)

Lift, Practice

10 overhead squats 20kg

2 muscle-ups

Deadlift: 5 at 50, 60, 70, 75, 80kg

Squat clean and split jerk: 4 at 40, 50kg

Clean and split jerk: 4 at 60, 65, 70kg

Incline bench: 5 at 95, 95, 95, 105, 115lb

Cable flyes: 10 at level 3

DB military press: 10 at 25lb

Cable crossover flyes: 10 at level 5

DB military press: 10 at 30lb

Cable flyes: 10 at level 4

My knee felt weak and overstressed at practice so I sat out after the warmup.

Lift, Practice

Warmup pt. 1: 2 rounds

25 jumping jacks

10 squats

5 burpees

10 pushups

Warmup pt. 2:

5 x (deadlift to hang clean to front squat to push press to overhead squat) 20kg

5 x (deadlift to hang squat clean and jerk to overhead squat) 30kg

5 x (deadlift to hang squat clean and jerk to overhead squat) 40kg

3 reps overhead squat 50kg

Front squat: 3 at 60, 3 at 65kg

Cleans: 6 at 60, 3 at 70kg

Practice was good.

Hellfish Bonanza

Woke up bright and early Saturday morning and wished that the weather was better. Whooped on JMU B, lost on dgp to William and Mary, sucked against a very tall Va Tech team, slept during the bye while listening to new find Pretty Lights, then faced--wait for it--NYU. A surprisingly encouraging loss on dgp, lots to work on but the potential is there. Oh, and it was a barn burner as usual.

Speaking of which, my minivan nabbed gyros and burgers and beer at Dave's Taverna, then got ready for the barn party that JMU throws every year. I had heard good things about this tournament party and it didn't disappoint. Pregame was a shot of everclear chased with everclear/Monster, then beer and lots of BID House Blue at the barn, shots of Cream sprinkled throughout. Solid party music in the beginning, a solid live band and lots of dancing. I crowd-surfed for the first time, danced with the Rutgers and TCNJ women's teams, slapped Frenchy in the face repeatedly and in general had a good night of drunken carousing. Yakked in the bushes next to the hotel front entrance, eventually found my way to a bed and woke up still drunk.

Warmed up late and fought off the drunk, never ran into the hangover (somehow). Walked over Richmond, went toe to toe with Maryland for the first half but somehow found a lot of ways to make it to the endzone and not score. Sucked in the second half. Jake the Jake and the Jive Turkeys bagged our final consolation game so we hit the road and got home pretty early.

I worked on my defense, bid a few times and got 6 or 7 D's throughout the weekend (including 2 or 3 that were thrown right to me). A few bonehead turnovers and a drop but my break throws were on point and I didn't force too many hucks. Not sure how Easterns Qualifier will go next weekend, but I'm happy that my knee held up over the weekend so I should be able to get back in the groove of workouts and practices.

Lift, Practice

3, 2, 1 muscle-ups

Front squat: 10 at 20, 8 at 40, 6 at 50kg

BB military press: 10 at 20, 8 at 40, 3 at 42kg

Pushups at +45lb: 10, 8, 5, 4

Incline situp and press: 10 at 45, 15 at 35, 20 at 25lb

Watched a very wet and miserable-looking practice.

Practice

Warmup jog

Stretch

15 minutes throwing

Stretch

Watch/coach practice

3x10 pullups

Practice

Opted out of the final kill drill because my knee was starting to complain. Still taking it easy, but trying to get back into it.

Scrimmage vs Princeton

Won 15-11 with the D-line playing all the O points and the O-line playing all the D points.